Absolutely! The essay assignments fit easily into the Writing Standards included in the Georgia Standards of Excellence (GSE) English Language Arts (ELA) Writing for grades nine through 12 and allows schools to effectively implement them. The contest meets several writing standards, including:

• W1: Write arguments to support claims in an analysis of substantive evidence.
• W2: Write informative/explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas, concepts, and information clearly and accurately through the effective selection, organization, and analysis of content.
• W3: Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, well-chosen details, and well-structured event sequences.
• W4: Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.
• W5: Develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach, focusing on addressing what is most significant for a specific purpose and audience.
• W10: Write routinely over extended time frames (time for research, reflection, and revision) and shorter time frames (a single sitting or a day or two) for a range of tasks, purposes, and audiences.
• SL1: Initiate and participate effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners, topics, texts, and issues, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively.
• SL3: Evaluate a speaker’s point of view, reasoning, and use of evidence and rhetoric, assessing the stance, premises, links among ideas, word choice, emphases, and tone used.